After Shia, hope Sunnis would support Ram temple in Ayodhya: Giriraj Singh

Thane: Union minister Giriraj Singh said he hoped Sunni Muslims would come out in support of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya just as Shias extended their support to the cause.

The BJP leader was speaking at the inauguration of the 25th Rashtriya Kavi Sammelan in Thane.

"Shias have already supported the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. I'm hopeful Sunni Muslims will also extend their support for the cause," he told reporters in Thane on Sunday night.

In November, 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board had submitted before the Supreme Court a proposal for settlement of the decades-old dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site, saying a temple can be built in Ayodhya and the mosque could be raised in Lucknow.

Singh said he widely used social media to blunt the opposition's criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP posted a thumping victory in 2017.

"The prime minister came under attack by his opponents during the UP elections but I extensively made use of social media to spread the message of what good had been done (under him) and you see the results for yourselves," he said.

In his inaugural address at the meet, he said there was a need to check the growth of population which was a major problem being faced by the country.

He said birth control measures were required to curb population and ease the pressure on utilisation of resources like land and water.